


Hero's Choice

by Karios



Category: Leverage
Genre: Angst, Gen, Job goes wrong, Non-Consensual Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-04 22:59:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15157427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karios/pseuds/Karios
Summary: What separates the hero from the villain? Heroes still make the right choice, even when all the options are bad ones.“Not we. Only one of us is getting out of here."





	Hero's Choice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zaniida](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaniida/gifts).



> I know there's a high risk in taking on a prompt your recip has envisioned for a while now, but I really, really loved this idea. I hope it lived up to your expectations.
> 
>  
> 
> Many thanks to mlraven for betaing.

    Even as the clock on the opposite wall precisely _tick, tick, ticked_ off the seconds with depressing regularity, time felt tortuously slow as Eliot and Parker regrouped in what had once been a bedroom closet. They had time. Their pursuers weren’t in a hurry. Not when each intake of breath, every heartbeat only served to push the drugs further through Eliot’s system. Kendrick’s man had received a broken arm in repayment for being cowardly enough to skip straight for Kendrick’s special cocktail of drugs instead of a fair fight, but Eliot didn’t feel a damn bit better about it. Not when his head already felt like it was home to a swarm of bees and every blink made the world a little fuzzy at the edges.

    “Eliot, Eliot!” Parker’s voice, sharp and urgent made him pivot toward the sound at once. Only the thief’s quick reflexes saved her from being struck in the face.

    “What the hell, Sparky?” she said before taking in the slightly unfocused look in her hitter’s eyes.

    “Bastard drugged me,” he confirmed needlessly.

    “Then we fight faster, before whatever it is takes hold,” concluded Parker.

    “No. Kendrick’s team is loyal, we’re outnumbered, and though they’d rather take us alive, they won’t hesitate to shoot.” He met her eyes as he added, “I’m already losing coordination. We try to fight our way of here again and we either both end up in one of Kendrick’s pens or with a bullet in our brains.”

    Parker fell silent, shocked by Eliot’s uncharacteristic honesty. She waited for a follow up comment or for Eliot to shake it off, bust the doors open, and charge. Instead, Eliot shifted to peer through the slatted doors and listen. The very distinctive footfall was getting closer and if the way the ground seemed to shift under his feet was any indication of his condition, he was in no shape to consider Parker’s suggestion. Eliot scowled into the light beyond, coming to the grim conclusion just as Parker asked, “Then what’s the plan? How are we getting out of here?”

    “Not we. Only one of us is getting out of here,” he whispered.

    “You’re not leaving me behind,” Parker shot back and it said something that after her time with the crew, with _him,_ that that was where her mind went.

    “No, Par-ker,” he drew her name out into two distinct syllables to refocus her from whatever betrayal she was remembering. “You’re leavin’ me.”

    A single sharp, whispered “no” was Parker’s reply.

    “What, Parker, there isn't time to be messing around!”

    “I’m not! You wouldn't ask the others to do this.”

    He would, and he had been about to say as much when Parker continued.

    “I’m not the kind of person who could anymore, Eliot.”

    His words on the damn mountain. _Better it was us. We can do what they can't do. What they won't do._ He ground his teeth together. “Dammit Parker, I’m not banking on your sense of self preservation.” Eliot was in fact, but that wasn’t the point. “You’re small, and light, and you don't get caught, right? You can slip away from these goons, get to Nate and the team. I'm counting on you to rescue me.”

    Parker beamed. He could feel her pride even if he was starting to have trouble making out her face, and for half a second Eliot thought she’d make at least one bit of this easy on him. He wasn't that lucky.

    “Wait, I don’t have to go. Nate, Hardison, and Sophie know we took this job. They’ll find us.”

    “In time? Without their hitter or the world’s best thief? Come on, you know we’re the best parts of our crew.” Eliot laughed at his own attempt at levity, but regretted it as the noise was swiftly replaced with a gurgle, as pain bloomed in his chest. Fighting to stay alert and on his feet was beginning to take its toll.

    He shook himself and blinked rapidly to clear his vision. Eliot needed to have one more fight left in him to draw as many of their pursuers as possible and give Parker her window to get away, then he could give into the darkness. He just needed to get control of his breathing first. Clear that tight, burning sensation from his chest.

    “What did he give you?” Parker wondered aloud, her fingers splayed across Eliot’s chest, no doubt feeling his heart chug strangely in his chest.

    “Powerful hallucinogenic. He thinks of it like truth serum. He waits for every monster in your brain to slither out and tear you apart, throws in a little sleep deprivation, and plenty of pain. Then Kendrick flounces in and promises to make it all go away; patches you up. Spend a few days spelunking in the darkest corners of your past and he looks like a bright new future.”

    Parker didn't ask how he knew, but the cocktail was clearly already making Eliot chatty because he volunteered even more information. “I’ve administered it.  Putting a man through his personal hell just to blackmail him with whatever you find.”

    Eliot was slipping, physically and mentally, Parker needed to focus, so she asked another question.

    “Why does he want you?”

    “Revenge. I turned down a place in his new world order. You don't force people into trust, you don't corner them into loyalty.”

    “And you expect me to leave you with his guy. He sounds worse than Moreau.”

    “He is, I guess.” Moreau was a devil but he believed in organization and efficiency. Kendrick was angry little boy playing army man and Father Flanagan in one. No, he was a kid with a magnifying glass on a sunny day, and Eliot was volunteering to be the ant.        

    Parker knew Eliot had a lot of dark days to sift through; plenty of ammunition for Kendrick’s twisted game. Just picturing Eliot confronted by anyone and everyone who held a chain around his soul made Parker’s throat constrict. “I don’t want to leave you. Not to be tortured. Not like this. You’re sure this is the only way?”

    Eliot nodded and regretted it as the motion made the world swim before his eyes. “I’m...I'm too far gone. Even if there was some way to escape I’d lose myself. I could hurt someone.”

    Parker finally understood. For Eliot, endangering an innocent stranger, or a friend was a fate worse than any other now. Not after he’d worked so hard to be better than that. “Okay. I'll go.”

    “Thank god,” muttered Eliot.

    “On one condition.”

    She waited until his gaze met her face.

    “Promise me there’ll be something left of you when I get back.”

    “Parker.”

    “Promise,” she hissed.

    Eliot sighed. “I'm not gonna die.” Sensing that wasn’t enough, he held up a hand to stave off further protest. “Whatever I see, or hear, or feel; whatever he breaks, or bruises, or cuts; I will hold out until you come back for me. I might be in more than one piece, but I’ll be here.”

    Parker pulled him in for a tight hug, which served to both ground him and provide him a memory of safety and warmth he’d cling to often in the coming days.

    “I’m asking you to trust me to do my job and for you to do yours. Just like any other day.”

    When he pulled back, Parker nodded, the determined glint back in her eyes as if an interesting laser grid awaited her, rather than a dead sprint towards the doors to freedom.

    Dead sprint, he thinks, is both a poor and fitting choice of words because if Parker were to be caught then this becomes Plan N for Nobody Lives. The pair of them tortured until death, with no one the wiser. Eliot was counting on Kendrick wanting him more than Parker, and for him to underestimate her.

    Once Eliot threw open the doors, Kendrick was leaning against the opposite wall, waiting for them personally. “I didn't expect you to keep us waiting all day, Mr. Spencer.” Kendrick smiled, taking a few steps out into the middle of the room, one hand extended as though they were making a business deal. “I trust you’re feeling more charitable about my little offer?”

    “Not exactly.” With that, Eliot charged straight for him, tackling Kendrick at the midriff while Parker broke right. Eliot and Kendrick crashed clumsily to the floor. Kendrick recovered first, pulling his arms out from under Eliot’s weight. Eliot struck wildly with his left hand, connecting with nothing but air, as Kendrick dodged the blow. Eliot jabbed with his right, and received a kick to the ribs for his efforts. Others rushed to surround the pair of them just as Kendrick landed an elbow to Eliot's face. Eliot's upper lip split on contact.

    “Get after the girl!” Kendrick ordered in the brief reprieve, giving Eliot his second wind. He struggled to his feet, feeling like his body was made of lead. He stumbled after the nearest lackey, throwing him into his partner. They crashed together as another pair came after Eliot. Eliot allowed his defenses to slip, using precious seconds to count the men in the room. The next few minutes were a blur as Eliot’s rapidly clouding vision and his slowing muscles made him little more than a live punching bag.

    A man reentered the room to report. “She got away, sir.”

    Eliot let his burning eyes slide shut. Of course she did, she was Parker.

    Eliot dropped to his knees. Another kick to his bruised midsection from the man on the right. Another blow to his head from the man on his left.

    “We need Mr. Spencer alive. Don't break him too soon,” Kendrick demanded.

    “You...never...could,” declared Eliot, the words already sounding slurred and distant. His arms have become too heavy to lift, let alone swing. Normally, it would be terrifying to be in a body that won't respond to his commands, but Eliot knew the terror was yet to come. For the moment, he focused on the immediate victory. Parker had gotten away. She was safe. She would come back for him. Better still, she knew what they were up against.

    The world continued to shrink away from him. Eliot could no longer feel boots or fists. Everything outside himself disappeared completely, as he was ordered to a cell.

**Author's Note:**

> I hated to end this on the capture, but without Nathan's mastermind skills, the rescue proved complicated. I did have a better sense of the torture, but it felt unfair to leave Eliot like that.


End file.
